


Soldiers

by Exdraghunt



Category: Captain America (Movies), Steam Powered Giraffe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-05
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-04 10:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 10,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/709520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exdraghunt/pseuds/Exdraghunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Companion piece to Way Home. A series of one shots and drabbles set in the Steam Powered Giraffe/ Avengers universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Teambuilding

So this goes with my last work, Way Home. This is mostly going to be a bunch of one shots and various ideas that didn't make it into Way Home. Most will be set during the war, but there will be some that happen in the modern day. These aren't really posted in any kind of order, chronologically or otherwise. 

 

\- - --- 

 

A team wasn’t made simply by picking men and throwing them together. No, to be an efficient, functioning unit there had to be trust, and friendship. The newly dubbed Howling Commandos had laid down a base for that trust in the HYDRA prison cells and on the long march back to the Allied base afterwards. Now, though, it was time to polish the ragtag group of men into something great. 

The first step was moving in together. They would be operating out of a joint Allied base, the same one that Steve had originally left for his mission from, and had been given a large tent to share. Not perhaps the nicest accommodations, but it was the Army. Privately, Steve thought that it was at least nicer than the barracks he’d had to share back at boot camp. At least the men he’d be sharing the tent with liked him. 

Dum Dum was the first to walk in, a large rucksack slung over his shoulder. The big man threw his bag down on the bed nearest the tent door and took a long drag from his cigar, “Nice digs. Army really goes all out, huh?”

“Hey, it’s better than what I had before,” Gabe was the next inside, surveying the cots before picking the least threadbare one. 

Jacques was close on Gabe’s heels, as he liked to stick nearest to the member of the team who actually spoke his language. Not that Jacques wasn’t capable of speaking English if he felt like it, but the small Frenchman rather preferred conversing away in his mother tongue and confusing the hell out of the Americans around the camp. 

Bucky, as expected, took the bed closest to Steve. The young sergeant threw his stuff down and flopped over on the bed, looking up at his old friend with shrewd eyes, “Some team you’re putting together here, Steve.”

“Just you wait, Bucky. It’s gonna be great.”

The tent flap moved aside and a copper face peered inside, hesitating a moment before entering. Rabbit didn’t have much with him, just a small duffle full of mostly clothing. The other Commandos stared as Rabbit flopped down on one of the cots, which creaked ominously under his weight.

“Do you even sleep?” Jim asked curiously as he set his stuff down on the last cot and began idly disassembling his rifle to clean it. 

“Not exactly,” Rabbit removed his helmet and leaned back against the hard military-issue pillow, hands under his head, “I gotta power down though. Give m-m-m-my systems time ta rest and such.”

“We’re not gonna have to run a power cord in here, are we?” Bucky looked at the robot thoughtfully. He wasn’t sure any of the tents in camp even –had- electricity. 

“I’m Steam powered, genius,” Rabbit exhaled a large plume of steam to prove his point, “I-I-I run on water.”

“Good, I was afraid we’d have to find a socket ta plug you in at night.” 

“Very funny.” 

The men laughed good naturedly, then looked over at the door when the final member of the team stepped in. 

“Oh dear,” James Montgomery Falsworth took a long look around the tent, “It seems we’re a cot short.”

Everyone else looked around in surprise. He was right. Every bed in the tent was taken. Rabbit immediately stood up and picked up his bag, “Sorry. Th-they probably only had enough beds for y-y-you humans. I don’ need this one.”

“No, there’s no reason for you to have to give up your bed,” Steve pulled his boots back on and got up, “I’ll just go requisition another cot.”

“It’s alright, just grab a chair an’ I’ll be fine,” Rabbit reassured him, “Pappy’s always tellin’ us it ain’t guh-good for our boilers ta lay down anyway.”

“If you’re sure.” Steve gave him a careful look as he headed out to track down the most comfortable chair he could find. 

“Thank you, Rabbit.” James said kindly as he set his stuff down and took a seat on the now clear cot, “So, it’s a bit early for the pubs to be open. What say you gents to some poker?”

Things in the tent were shoved aside and moved around until the team was sitting in a rough circle around one of the cots. The deck was shuffled and dealt, then they started throwing money into the pot. Rabbit had to dig around in his pockets for a good minute before he produced a sad, tattered American five dollar bill. 

“Really going all out there, huh?” Bucky snickered as he looked over his hand. 

Rabbit frowned, “Wuh-well the Military doesn’t pay me, tough guy. I gotta go wit’ what I got.”

The other men went silent and stared at their copper companion. 

“What?”

“They don’t pay you?” James asked incredulously, “As in, nothing at all?”

“N-nope,” Rabbit discarded two cards, “Technically, I’m bein’ rented from the Walters, so all money goes back ta Pappy.”

Everyone frowned, but had no comment for that revelation. All of them had volunteered for the army, had gone to their local recruiting office of their own free will and signed right up. The idea that one of their fellow soldiers was being –rented- was just. . . wrong. 

Rabbit won the first round and swept the money towards him with a smug smile as the others groaned and folded their cards. 

“Where’d you learn ta play poker anyway?” Dum Dum grumbled as Jim dealt out the next hand. 

“In the trenches of th’ fuh-first World War,” Rabbit commented idly, “Wasn’t much else ta do between shellings.”

Everyone was staring at him again. 

“Hold on a sec, you’re that old?” Gabe threw another dollar on the pot. None of the men sitting in the tent had even been born when the first world war had ended. All of them had figured that Rabbit was some sort of recently built machine, maybe from the late twenties before the depression hit.

“Yep. Me n’ my brothers will be, uhh,” Rabbit tipped his head back in thought, “45 years old. Next month.”

“Wait, you fought in the first world war, and you came back for more?” Jim frowned darkly at his hand, then folded. 

“Well it ain’t like I-I-I had a choice. Pappy ain’t got much money, an’ the US pays a lot ta rent us.” Rabbit grinned and laid out his cards, “Full House.”

Everyone else groaned as he gathered the pot and folded up the bills. 

“What’re ya even gonna use all that for, anyway?” Dum Dum grumbled and tapped the ash off the end of his cigar, “It ain’t like you eat. Or drink booze.”

“I’m sure I’ll fuh-find somethin’ ta do wit’ it.” Rabbit smirked as the next hand was dealt out.


	2. Pepper

Pepper didn't do too well the first she met the bots, so I wanted to give her another chance. Plus, Jon and Rabbit shenanigans. 

 

\- - - - - -

Pepper Potts was enjoying a rare day of having Avengers tower all to herself when JARVIS alerted her that someone was at the door. 

“Who is it?” Pepper was currently relaxing in the living room enjoying a good paperback and didn’t particularly relish the idea of getting up. 

“It is the members of Steam Powered Giraffe, ma’am. I assume they are here to visit Captain Rogers.”

That made Pepper put down her book. She hadn’t talked to the bots very long the first time they had come to visit, (mainly because she had been busy chewing out Tony for not telling her about the AIM attack) but she knew that Steve was close to the musicians and the least she could do was invite them inside until the boys got home. 

When she opened the front door, though, she was surprised to see only the three robots standing there with no sign of their human band mates. 

“Ms. Potts,” The Spine was as polite as always, tipping his hat when he saw her with a small smile, “Is Captain Rogers in?”

Pepper was a bit shocked by how different the tall, silver automaton was from the last time she had seen him. He still slouched a little to try and downplay his great height, but gone was the stuttering, glitching voice and tremors, “Oh, uh, no, sorry. Steve isn’t here right now. He should be back soon, though. Do you want to come inside?”

Before The Spine could reply, The Jon shoved past him and went running off into the tower with a loud “Yaaaaay!”

“We’d love to, Ms. Potts,” The Spine rolled his eyes and followed his younger brother inside. 

“Can I ask you something, Spine?” Pepper asked quietly as they stepped out of the elevator onto the main living floor. 

“Of course.”

His calm acceptance didn’t make this much easier, “Tony talks about how JARVIS is the most advanced AI on the planet, but you and your brothers seem to have much more . . . emotion than even JARVIS. I mean, I’m sure JARVIS couldn’t sing if Tony tried.”

“You’re wondering whether we are the product of very advanced programming, or something more.” The Spine looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. He had heard variations of this question from hundreds of people in his long life. “I cannot answer that, for not even we know. But I like to think that there isn’t a line of programming that tells Rabbit or The Jon to act how they do.”

They looked over to the kitchen, where Rabbit was cooing over a very shiny brand new eight-slot toaster. The Jon reached out to touch the appliance, just to make his brother mad, and sure enough Rabbit tried to bat the brass bot’s hand away. So The Jon tried harder and stuck his fingers right into one of the slots. Electricity crackled and every fibre of The Jon’s wig stood on end as the bot’s joints locked up and he fell to the floor. Rabbit just cried out in dismay when a wisp of smoke floated up from the toaster.

The Spine sighed, “I’m sorry Ms. Potts.” The Jon would be fine, they were all insulted against electrical shock, but the toaster was well and truly fried. 

Pepper just laughed and patted The Spine’s shoulder. “It’s fine. Tony can afford to buy another.”

\- - - - - -


	3. Brass Goggles

\-----

It was the Howling Commandos’ first official mission. The moment of truth. They hadn’t bothered to waste their time going after a minor HYDRA base, and instead were going right to the top after Schmidt. 

Everything was relatively okay until there was a very loud rumbling sound and a giant machine rolled up to block the base’s gates. Whatever it was, it was massive, looking like a tank had mated with an anti-aircraft gun and then infused the result with energy from the cube. 

“Uh, Cap? I’m not sure a grenade’s gonna take that out.” Jim stared up at the . . thing in dismay. 

“Give me a second,” Steve analyzed the weapon with a critical eye as they dodged a bright blue beam o’ death. “Everything’s got a weakness.”

There was a huff from behind them and Rabbit pushed them out of his way, “Stand back. I’ve got this.”

Steve looked down at the copper automaton in confusion. Rabbit didn’t even carry a gun like they did, and there was no way that his flamethrower would even affect the death tank. 

But Rabbit didn’t unhinge his jaw to bring out his flamethrower. Instead, the bot sank down onto one knee and grabbed the goggles that always hung around his neck, pulling them up over his eyes. The odd, brass goggles that everyone always thought were some kind of keepsake from home and didn’t bother to ask about. 

The telescoping parts of the long lens began to spin in opposite directions as the symbols engraved in the metal lit up a sickly blue-green. In a matter of seconds the whole assembly turned into a glowing blur, then a visible beam of light and electrical energy shot out of the end of the lens, impacting the HYDRA tank in the dead center of its turret. There was a long moment of silence before the tank exploded spectacularly, blowing apart a large chunk of the wall surrounding the base in the process. 

Every member of the Howling Commandos stared at Rabbit in shocked silence as his goggles became ordinary once more and returned to their place around his neck. The copper bot’s knee joint made an unpleasant grinding noise as he slowly returned to his feet. 

“The bloody hell was that?!” James’ mouth was hanging open. 

“My death ray.” Rabbit responded matter-of-fact, as though the answer was obvious. 

“Your –goggles- are a death ray?” Jim didn’t know whether to be impressed or terrified. 

“No. The goggles are a focuser. My-my-my eye is the death ray.” He tapped his green eye for emphasis. 

“And you didn’t bother ta tell us you had a death ray in your –eye-?!” 

Rabbit just shrugged, “Ya never asked. N-now are we gonna take out this base or what?”


	4. Horror

Gore warning

 

\- - - - - -- 

Information of their attack had been leaked somehow. The Howling Commandos missed Schmidt and Zola by perhaps hours, and stormed the HYDRA base only to find it completely empty and cleared out. 

“Damn it,” Steve punched the nearest wall, leaving a dent. There wasn’t time to dwell on their failure though, they still had to secure the base, free any prisoners there might be, and look for any useful intel that might have been left behind. 

Everyone split up to check the many rooms of the base, on the alert for anything that could help track Schmidt to the next base. 

A loud yell echoed through the dark hallways of the HYDRA base, the odd metallic edge to the voice leaving no doubt as to who had cried out. 

“Rabbit!” Steve dropped the papers he was rifling through and ran down the hall, Bucky hot on his heels. 

The copper automaton was standing stock still in the entrance to the room at the very end of the hallway, a hand over his mouth. Steve joined him in the doorway and was immediately hit by a familiar smell, decaying flesh. Clearly, this room had been Arnam Zola’s personal play place. Cadavers were everywhere, ripped apart and grotesquely mutated in terrible ways. Bucky had to step away from the door to hurl, but Steve steeled himself and walked into the room. They needed to know what kind of things Zola was working on. 

Steve walked slowly through the large laboratory, trying very hard to look at the corpses as just experiments, not as things that were once human like him. Rabbit had followed him in, staring at the gore with a sense of fascinated horror. 

“I don’t u-u-understand,” Rabbit’s voice was quiet, but still echoed around the chamber. 

“Some people are just sick,” Steve didn’t know what to say to the robot, “I don’t understand it either. And I don’t want to.”

“Th’ Spine talks about how he wuh-wishes he was human,” Rabbit shied away from a body who’s torso had been methodically dissected to reveal the organs inside. “But humans do these things to each other. I-I-I can’t understand it.”


	5. Shower

Just felt like writing an awkward shower scene. 

Also: my pet theory that the Cube from the movie is some kind of strange tech infused with refined Blue Matter. 

 

\- - - - -- 

 

The mission had gone well, from a tactical standpoint. Practically, they had all slogged home coated in a layer of mud so thick that the only way to tell the Commandos apart was by height. 

As soon as they had gotten off their transport plane, the Howling Commandos headed straight for the showers, leaving muddy clothing strewn over their tent. It was actually kind of nice, the base had just finished installing a semi-permanent building for the shower racks, and they had actual hot water for the first time. 

Steve hummed contentedly as the water sluiced off the layers of mud, turning the water swirling down the drain a disgusting brown. A murmur ran through the men in the washrack and everyone turned to see Rabbit walk into the building. 

“Heya, Cap.” Rabbit took the empty spot next to Steve and turned on the spigot, uncaring of the temperature as he stepped under the spray. 

It was against the unspoken rules of the showers, but Steve couldn’t help but stare at his fellow soldier. No one had ever seen Rabbit without clothing before, and everyone had privately figured he just looked like a metal human under his fatigues. 

Steve’s artistic side couldn’t help but marvel at the delicate overlapping copper plates that let Rabbit bend and twist as dexterously as any of them. The bot was using a brush with long, stiff bristles to get mud out from his joints and under his plating. Exposed clockwork gears moved and spun as Rabbit twisted to attack the stubborn mud. 

“Hey Tin Man, you aren’t gonna short out and zap us all, are ya?” Bucky quipped from Steve’s other side. They all knew that Rabbit didn’t run on electricity, but that didn’t stop the others from teasing him. 

Rabbit didn’t even deign that with a response, turning to expose his back to the spray. Steve watched him twist and stretch in an attempt to scrub his back, but there were ways that the automaton just couldn’t bend. 

“Here, let me get your back.” Steve held out a hand for the brush. Rabbit hesitated a moment before handing over the brush and turning so Steve could reach his back. 

Up close, Rabbit’s systems were even more incredible. There were pipes on the back of his neck and shoulders that puffed steam into the already steam-laden air, and tiny plates on his back moved and shifted as Rabbit flexed his arms to expose more of the mud and dirt. 

“Thu-thanks, Cap,” Rabbit took the brush back, then lifted a leg and braced it against the wall so he could work at his knee and ankle joints. “I hate mud. Gets in a-a-a-all of my joints.”

“You said it,” Dum Dum rumbled from the other side of the room, digging a large finger in his ear, “I’m gonna be pulling this stuff outta my ears for weeks.”

Finishing with his feet, Rabbit felt around for a catch on his torso and his chest plates folded aside, filling the room with a blue glow. 

Steve felt his skin go cold, “Rabbit, what is that?”

“Huh?” Rabbit turned, letting Steve see the swirling blue core that gave the copper man life. The blue glowing orb of energy was very familiar. 

“That looks just like the cube energy.”

“Yeah?” Rabbit peered down at his chest with interest, trying to see inside to his core, “Might be. I-I-I thought that th’ cube looked a bit like Blue Matter.”

“Wait, you’re made out of the same stuff that Schmidt runs his weapons off of?” James was looking over at them with an expression of distaste, “I’m not sure I like that.”

“I-its not like I’m gonna suddenly shoot a beam of death at you.” Rabbit protested. 

Everyone gave him an unamused look. They all remembered the death ray incident. 

“O-okay, well I’m still not gonna shoot it –at- you guys,” He conceeded reluctantly. 

“Well if the Cube is made out of some kind of blue matter, maybe Howard can figure out something if you let him look at your core.” Steve suggested. He knew that the genius scientist wasn’t having a great amount of luck with the small battery he’d brought back. 

Rabbit pulled a face, “I-I-I don’ want anyone lookin’ at my insides except Pappy.”

He’d been afraid of that. Steve sighed, but didn’t press any more. There was a delicate line between asking someone, and ordering them. 

It took another couple minutes to get all the muck out from the hinges of his chest plates, but Rabbit was finally satisfied and he set aside his brush, pulling a small screwdriver from a storage compartment in his chest before closing up his plating. Carefully, he brought the tool up to the screw that held on his lower jaw and began working it loose. Before Steve could ask, the bot had removed both screws and simply pulled his lower jaw clean off. 

Steve stared in a kind of fascinated horror as Rabbit lifted his jaw up to his eyes, peering in the grating of his cheek vents, “Ugh, n-no wonder I’ve had trouble. This is all clogged up.”

Hearing him speak was a whole new level of disturbing because Rabbit didn’t sound any different, even with most of his mouth missing. Holding his jaw under the water, Rabbit washed out all the dirt that had caught in his vents, then he set the body part on the ground and picked up the screw driver again. This time, he focused on the small screws that held on his faceplate. 

Watching Rabbit simply reach up and pull his entire face off sent Steve right past fascinated horror into incredibly disturbing and wrong territory. Without his facial plating Rabbit was pretty much a copper skull, lacking any kind of eyelids to cover his great, glowing photoreceptors and with a full compliment of teeth hanging from his upper jaw. 

Behind him, Steve heard Bucky make a gagging sound. This was probably about on par with watching Schmidt pull off his latex mask, except worse because Rabbit was actually holding up his face and scrubbing at the mud that had managed to get under his faceplate. 

The whole of the showers breathed a sigh of relief when Rabbit replaced his faceplates, then screwed back on his lower jaw. Turning off the spray, Rabbit swiped a towel quickly over his body, then pulled on his boots and walked out of the showers buck naked. Steve sighed and shook his head, then turned off his own shower. 

\- - - -


	6. Coulson

With special guest appearance by Phil Coulson! Mostly because I wanted to write some The Jon. 

\- - - - 

 

Agent Phil Coulson was completely silent as he stepped off the elevator and onto the main living floor of Avengers tower. It had been easy to get JARVIS to let him in, as the AI had been programmed to give him access back when Coulson had been assigned to baby sit Stark. Obviously, Stark hadn’t bothered to reprogram his AI after Phil’s supposed death. 

Phil sighed and shook his head. Fury tried so hard to do what he thought he was right, but sometimes the director of SHIELD made some unfortunate decisions. 

The SHIELD agent entered the common room and froze. The room was devoid of Avengers, instead its only occupant was a robot sitting on the couch calmly watching cartoons on the television. 

His immediate thought was that Stark had been building robots for some reason, but a closer look proved that he (for it was definitely a male robot) didn’t look like any piece of Stark-tech Phil had ever seen. So then the question became what was a robot doing in Avengers tower unchecked?

Cautiously, Phil walked into the robot’s range of vision, mentally mapping out the room in case the thing attacked. 

When he was spotted, though, the robot didn’t react with any kind of hostility. Instead, the brass face broke into a broad smile, “Oh, hello!” His voice was light, cheery, and oddly human. “Who are you?”

“My name is Phil,” The spy carefully sat down on one of the other couches in the room, making sure to keep his back to a wall to give him a view of all the windows and doors, “And who are you?”

“My name is The Jon,” The robot stood and lifted his top hat, “And one day, when I grow up, I’m going to be a real boy!”

Phil let himself relax minutely. The Jon didn’t seem to be a threat, at least not at the present moment, “It’s nice to meet you, The Jon. Do you know where the Avengers are, I’m here to see them.”

“Uuh,” The Jon sat back down, throwing his legs over the arm of the couch and shifting to sit sideways, “Steve said they were going out to get food. I think. They left’d us here because Michael says people here aren’t used to seeing robots out shopping like they are back home.”

That was probably a good decision. Everyone in New York was still very much on edge and taking robots out in public probably would’ve caused a panic. 

“And Michael is your creator?” Phil spoke patiently, like he was talking to a young child. 

“Oh, no. Michael is in our band, and he fixes us.” The Jon laughed, “We were built by Colonel Peter Walter, back in 1896.”

That was . . . surprising. This robot was over one hundred years old, and yet seemed to be more advanced than anything Stark had built, “And who is we?”

“Me an’ my brothers, Rabbit and Th’ Spine.”

The words caused something to click in Phil’s brain. He had devoted a lot of time to researching the life and service record of Captain America, even using SHIELD’s resources to dig into files and records that weren’t available to anyone without the highest clearance. Deep in the most top secret of files were notes about three robots that the US government had sent out into the war, one of whom had joined the elite Howling Commandos to serve with Captain America. There was very little about what had happened to the robots after the end of the war, and Phil had always figured that they had been decommissioned. Clearly, he was wrong. 

Footsteps sounded in the hall and Phil braced himself. The footfalls were heavy, too heavy to be human, but not loud enough to be Tony Stark stomping around in the Iron Man armor. 

A very tall silver robot dressed in all black strode into the room, freezing when his green eyes landed on Phil.

“Oh, hey, The Spine.” The Jon chirped and bent over until he was looked at his brother upside –down, a hand holding his hat securely on his head, “Look, this is Phil.”

“So I see,” The Spine murmured, suspicious of the new human in the room, but not wanting to scare his younger brother, “And how did Phil get in?”

“JARVIS let me in,” Phil decided to take this into his own hands and stood, holding out a hand politely, “My name is Phil Coulson. I work for SHIELD.”

“And my name is The Spine,” The titanium-alloy automaton shook his hand politely, “If you’re here to see Steve and the others, I’m afraid they’re out shopping for dinner. But they should be returning in the next half hour or so.”

“I see. Thank you.” Phil smiled and returned to the couch, “I hope you don’t mind if I wait for them.”

“Of course not.” The Spine took a seat on the couch next to The Jon, who immediately flopped over to use his brother’s lap as a pillow. 

“So I assume you know Captain Rogers from the war?” Phil hedged carefully, aware that he wasn’t supposed to have access to such information.

“Oh yeah, me and Cap go buh-back a looong way,” A new voice entered the conversation as Rabbit entered the room, having sensed that people were gathering and feeling the innate need to go bother them. The copper bot perched on the arm of the couch and leaned in, placing a sharp elbow on The Spine’s hat. 

“I see,” Phil allowed himself a smirk and leaned forward, “Well I’d love to hear stories if you have any.”


	7. Silly Swingers

. . . Mostly I just wanted to write about everybody dancing. :Y

 

\- - -- - - 

 

The dance club was hopping, the lively jazz music pumping out its doors a welcome respite from the dullness of camp. It was a common place for the soldiers to relax, only a block away from the pub and always full of lovely young women. 

Bucky had dragged Steve along to the club despite his protests, and now the super soldier sat at a table off to the side of the dance floor feeling like an awkward third wheel. Women kept coming up to him to ask for a dance, causing Steve to blush and turn away and mumble that he didn’t know how. 

Several of the other Commandos had come as well including, to their surprise, Rabbit. In fact, that copper automaton was proving to be quite the good dancer, giving even Bucky a run for his money. 

Steve watched as Rabbit paused in front of a cute young girl and held out his hand in invitation. The girl turned bright red as her friends giggled and pushed her forward. Cautiously, she placed her hand in Rabbit’s metal one and shrieked in delight when she was pulled out on the floor. 

The girls who danced with Rabbit were always wary of the robot at first, but his fluid, energetic movements and open, happy personality always brought them out of their shells. By the end of the dance, the girl would be breathless with laughter as Rabbit moved onto the next. 

After a series of fast songs, the band struck up a slower tune and Rabbit wandered off the dance floor to collapse into the chair next to Steve. 

“Having fun?” Steve pushed a glass of water towards his teammate. 

Steam hissed from Rabbit’s various vents as he gulped down the glass of water in one go, “Yeah, this is great.” He exhaled a plume of steam and watched as it drifted up in front of the lights, “Why aren’t y-y-y-you out dancing?”

“I, uh, I don’t know how.” Steve bit his lip and stared at the table-top. 

“Don’t know how to dance? We can’t have that!” Rabbit grabbed Steve’s arm and hauled him to his feet. 

“No, Rabbit,” Steve protested, but the copper automaton was too strong and hauled him over to a decently clear piece of floorspace off in one of the corners. 

“We can’t have Captain America sittin’ in a corner cause he can’t dance.” Rabbit said firmly, “N-n-now listen. Can ya feel the beat?”

Steve stopped fidgeting and listened, certain he wasn’t going to be any good at this. But after a moment of listening he could pick out the sound of the string bass methodically strumming the quarter notes, and his foot began to tap along with the beat of the song.

“See? Knew ya could do it.” Rabbit grabbed Steve’s hands, “Now, see, it’s a six count. So ya step back, one-two, then to the left, then the right.”

For several minutes Steve felt rather distinctly like a moose trying to two-step, but Rabbit kept at it, helping him sway back and forth to the beat until he felt like he was getting a handle on it. At one point, Steve planted a large foot directly on Rabbit’s and immediately jumped back, apologizing profusely and turning bright red. Rabbit just waved him off, “Made out of metal, remember? Cuh-couldn’t feel a thing. Hey, now you-you-you’re getting it.”

When Steve felt like he had the footwork down okay, Rabbit positioned himself on the Captain’s right side and guided Steve’s right hand to sit on his waist, the other hand held out in front, "Okay, same thing. Rock step, then forward, and back.”

It was a good thing the club was relatively dark, because Steve didn’t want to think about the teasing he would garner from his men if they spotted Rabbit teaching him how to dance. He looked up at one point and spotted Bucky watching the pair with a knowing grin. The young Sergeant had been trying to get him out dancing for –years-.

“Hey, you aren’t bad at all,” Rabbit gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder that stung briefly, making Steve wince, “Okay, n-n-now lift your left arm. Yeah, like that. An’ I’ll just spin like this.” The bot twirled gracefully out of Steve’s hold, then spun the other way until he was facing his partner again, “See, easy as cake.”

“Easy as pie,” Steve muttered with a laugh. Rabbit never was very good at getting sayings right. 

“Whatever,” Rabbit dropped Steve’s hands and looked around, “N-now we gotta get you a girl ta dance wit.”

“What? No, I-“ Steve was dragged away once more towards the last girl Rabbit had danced with.

“Rema, how’d ya like ta dance with my guh-good friend Captain America.” Rabbit put both hands firmly on Steve’s shoulders, preventing his escape. 

Rema laughed and took Steve’s hands, pulling him out onto the floor as Rabbit grabbed one of the girl’s friends. 

It was probably one of the more awkward 3 or 4 minutes of Steve’s life, but at least Rema was nice and didn’t laugh when he messed up. She even stopped to help him through a couple of the turns, patient when he couldn’t get his arms to move right. Nice as she was, though, Steve still fled the dance floor when the song ended and made a beeline right back to his table. 

“Who knew all it took was a pushy robot to get you to dance?” Bucky was already seated at the table, having sat the last song out, “We do this a couple more times and you might even get Agent Carter to dance with you.”

Steve turned bright red at the idea, but didn’t deny that it would be nice to not make a fool of himself in front of Peggy. Maybe they would have to come back again some time. 

Hissing steam and ticking clockwork proceeded Rabbit’s arrival, audible even over the sound of the music. The bot’s systems were working hard with all the dancing he was doing, and Rabbit had to sit and get some water down before he overheated. 

“See, y-y-you ain’t that bad at dancin.” Rabbit leaned on Steve’s shoulder, “Jus’ gotta get you some more practice. Soon, ya’ll be dancin’ with that Peggy gal you like so much.”

Because of course all of them knew exactly what girl he had his eye on. Steve sighed and rested his face in his hands. 

A female giggle drew his attention and Steve looked up to see a girl run up to Rabbit and hesitate before leaning down and giving the automaton a quick kiss right on the lips. Rabbit froze in surprise, giving the girl a chance to run back to her friends, who broke into laughing fits and wandered back to the other side of the room. 

“Well, you’re a popular robot tonight,” Bucky laughed as Rabbit rubbed the lipstick off his faceplate. 

“Her friends dared her,” Rabbit frowned and tried to see his reflection in his water glass, “Happens all th-th-the time. Guess I’m a novelty.”

“This happens a lot?” Steve could relate. He had encountered some very amorous women since his transformation. 

“Wuh-well it ain’t always kissing, and it ain’t always girls. But yeah. People jus’ want ta say they’ve talk to, or danced with, or kissed the robut.” Rabbit straightened his shirt cuff, now smeared with pink lipstick, “Th’ Spine’ll actually ask girls out. B-b-but I’m not interested in tha’ sort of thing.”

“What, you don’t like the dames?” Bucky, the eternal ladies man, asked with amusement. 

“I’m not human, I’m a robut. There ain’t much point in datin’ human ladies, it’s not like it cuh-could go anywhere,” Rabbit said it with a shrug. He knew what he was, it wasn’t something that bothered him. 

“Makes sense,” Bucky nodded and sipped from his drink. 

Rabbit leaned back in his chair, steam puffing softly from his vents as his body cooled. Onstage, the band finished their set and walked off for a short break. People trickled off the dance floor to settle and mingle at the tables around the room. Various other members of the Commandos were scattered around the room, entertaining women with tall tales of their heroics and missions. 

By the time the band had come back, most of the team had left for the pub down the block to join their other members. There, when the band took a break Rabbit would always jump onstage and grab whatever instrument he could play that was on hand. The other soldiers were so used to it that many times others with musical talent would join him, picking up guitars and trumpets to strike up covers of popular tunes. They weren’t always the best, but the songs were lively and Rabbit always enthusiastic, which was all the drunken bar-goers were looking for. 

The band would return and pretend to be indignant that their instruments had been borrowed, but everyone knew they had been enjoying the music too.


	8. Violence

\---- - - - - - - 

 

They were at the dance joint again. Rabbit had gotten it into his head that Steve –had- to learn to dance, for Peggy’s sake, and the bot was very hard to dissuade when he got an idea in his head. 

Steve had danced with a couple girls, all of whom were more than happy to put up with his awkward movements thank god, but had moved back to one of the tables to unwind. Bucky was sitting there as well taking a break after a particularly fast song when Steve noticed someone was missing. 

“Hey, Bucky? You seen Rabbit?” The copper automaton was normally a very visible figure, but Steve didn’t see him anywhere in the club. 

Bucky shrugged, “I dunno. Maybe he left?”

“No, he wouldn’t leave without telling anyone,” Rabbit could be irresponsible on occasion, but he knew better than to go off alone without alerting a member of the team. Steve sighed and stood. 

A quick lap of the dance floor proved that Rabbit was nowhere inside, so Steve headed out onto the street. He kept an ear out for the distinctive sound of Rabbit’s systems as he made a slow lap of the block, and by chance picked up on an odd sound coming from the alley behind the club. It was the hard metallic clang of metal hitting metal, accompanied by the occasional yell. 

The source of the sounds was quickly made clear as Steve rounded the corner and ran down the alley. Down at the end, near the back door to the dance club, a figure stood tall wielding a metal pipe in his hands. On the ground lay another figure, unmoving. 

Rabbit was silent when the young man brought the pipe down on his body again, the sharp clang reverberating in the narrow alleyway. 

“HEY!” Steve yelled. In a few swift movements, the super soldier had yanked the pipe from the teen’s hand and pinned his arms to his sides. 

“Let me go!” The youth struggled fruitlessly, “That thing was dancin’ with my girl! Nobody dances with my girl!”

Steve was trying to throttle his anger down enough that he could talk to the young man without hitting him when the sound of hissing steam made him turn. His momentary distraction gave the youth the chance to slip out of his arms and escape, but Steve paid him no mind as he knelt next to Rabbit.

“Hey, you okay?” Steve grabbed his teammate and carefully lifted him to his feet, straining a little under the automaton’s weight. 

“St-st-Steve?” Rabbit’s voice box skipped worse than usual, his normally lively voice shot through with static, “What- ?”

“A kid was beating you with a pipe,” Steve frowned at the sight of a decent sized dent in the side of Rabbit’s head. While his metal body was well built to withstand attack, his head was made up of much more delicate parts. 

“Oh. Yuh-yeah.” Rabbit wavered as he tried to find his feet, then nearly fell over when he bent to retrieve his bandana from the ground. 

“Said you’d danced with his girl,” Steve retrieved the wayward item of clothing and helped Rabbit retie it around his head, “Why didn’t you fight back?” 

“Didn’ want ta hurt him,” Rabbit mumbled as they slowly made their way out of the alley, heading back to camp. 

Steve sighed and shook his head. He understood it, even if he didn’t like it. Rabbit was much stronger than a human, and was probably even stronger than the Super Soldier himself. It would be very easy for him to injure, even kill, a human with a careless swipe of his hand. So it wasn’t a surprise that, when unable to escape, Rabbit had chosen to just curl up and wait for the violence to stop. 

“Next time someone asks you out into an alley, just come find one of the guys, okay? We’ll beat ‘im up for you.”

That earned him a chuckle, “Whu-whatever you say, Cap.”


	9. Snowed In

Short, kinda dumb chapter. But I really love the idea of Rabbit getting used as a heater in cold weather. 

 

\-----

 

Sometimes, HYDRA wasn’t their only enemy. The Commandos had been coming back from a mission in the mountains when they found themselves suddenly and completely snowed in when a blizzard took them by surprise. 

It certainly wasn’t the first time the team had been stuck in a freezing, snowy place, as Schmidt seemed to have an affinity for sticking his bases up high in difficult to reach places out in the ass-end of nowhere. That, of course, didn’t make it suck any less. 

When the snow had hit, they managed to find a small cave, more of a depression in the cliff-side really, and set up one of their tents out of the path of the wind. It hadn’t taken long for the snow to drift up outside, and there was no sign of the storm stopping before morning. 

There was no room for personal space as the men huddled together in the confines of the small tent, sharing body heat and blankets alike. Rabbit had quickly become everybody’s –best- friend, because though the bot’s metal limbs were cold his boiler kept his torso at a constant, very warm temperature. Currently the copper automaton sat in the center of the tent shirtless, letting the heat from his systems radiate outward. He was purposely running his boiler hotter than normal, steam hissing from his various vents at a steady rate. Every fifteen or twenty minutes, one of the men would get up and open the tent flap the tiniest bit to gather some snow to keep Rabbit going strong. 

Everything in the tent had gathered a layer of condensation from the steam, but everyone agreed that being a bit damp was preferable to being frozen solid. They all had extra clothing in water-proof bags anyway. 

They slept in shifts, making sure that one person was always awake to keep gathering fuel and make sure Rabbit wasn’t about to overheat and shut down. The snow finally tapered off just before sunrise, and by the time the sun had risen over the mountain tops the sky had cleared completely. Rabbit gratefully began slowing down his systems as the sunlight hit their tent, returning himself to his normal operating temperature. 

Jim, who had taken the final shift, began shaking the other men awake. They all dressed quickly, eager to get out of the cramped tent and on the move again even with a foot of snow on the ground outside. The tent was broken down and packed back up then the group continued walking, trying to find a clear spot so Rabbit could send out a radio signal for them to be picked up. 

“So what’s the verdict?” Bucky jigged in place, rubbing his hands together to try and get some warmth back in his fingers, “How far away are they?”

Rabbit was standing in the middle of a clearing, head tilted to one side in that peculiar way that told them he was communicating over radio signals, “We’re about a mile and a half from our ride.” He finally announced, cutting the connection, “Lets get walking.”

Everyone picked up their packs and continued the march, eager to get back to base and out of the cold. 

 

\---- - - - - - -


	10. Walter Manor

Tony and Steve finally get around to visiting Walter Manor. 

 

\------

 

“So this is Walter Manor?” Tony Stark looked up at the large mansion with an expression of disbelief. The building had, at one point, probably been an impressive manor, but over the years crazy, lopsided add-ons had been built until the place resembled a Frankenstein mansion more than anything else. 

“Must be,” Steve Rogers wasn’t put off at all by the building’s unusual architecture and walked right up the front path towards the door. The door that wasn’t actually there, as the front door was just an empty frame without anything in it. 

“Umm, hello?” The two stepped through into the dark entryway, unsure of how to proceed without a door to knock on or a doorbell to ring. 

“Who goes there?!”

They turned to see a large man with a rather grotesquely misshapen body leering at them with a sideways eye. He smiled, showing off a mouth full of much too pointy teeth. Tony made a gagging sound and Steve hushed him. 

“Hello. I’m Steve Rogers, this is Tony Stark. We’re here to see Rabbit and his brothers.”

“Ooooh, Captain America, sir,” The man awkwardly bowed, “Norman Becile, at your service. Let me show you to the lounge, and I’ll fetch one of the bots.”

Norman flicked on a light switch, suddenly bathing the room in light. They were shown into a room sparsely decorated with odd paintings of fruit and a single, rather lumpy red chair, then Norman walked back out. 

“What kind of a place is this?” Tony looked distastefully at the hideous chair and decided to remain standing. 

“I dunno, from their stories, I expected something a bit. . . weirder,” Steve commented. Rabbit had once told stories of an army of badger-kittens ruining an expensive gala.

There was a loud clunking sound from the landing above them, and they looked up to see Rabbit peering down at them from the top of the stairs. 

“CAP!” A smile split Rabbit’s face when he saw who was waiting from him and he hopped on the banister, sliding down it to the bottom of the staircase, “Ya came to see us!”

“Of course I did,” Steve pulled Rabbit into a one-armed hug, “I hope you don’t mind that I brought Tony with me.”

“Not at all,” Rabbit grabbed Steve’s arm and started pulling him towards the stairs, “Come on, lets go find Th’ Spine. He’s puh-probably in the Hall of Wires.”

The stairs went up and up, spiraling through the heart of the manor. Tony was puffing behind Steve when they finally stepped off onto one of the floors that looked just like all the other floors and started walked down the hallway. 

“Are there any doors in this place?” Tony finally asked as they passed doorframe after doorframe. 

“Nope,” Rabbit responded cheerily, “Petes doesn’t believe in doors. The Hall of Wires is th’ only place that’s g-g-g-got one.”

Sure enough, they stopped in front of a large, wooden door positioned at the end of the hallway. Rabbit tugged it open without ceremony, and they stepped into the massive room on the other side. 

Hall of Wires turned out to be an accurate moniker. Wires of all sizes were coiled and looped everywhere, snaking across the floor and forming a tangled vine network above them. Tony made a face at the sight of such disorganization, but an odd clicking sound coming from the nest of wires distracted him from commenting on the state of the room. 

The wires shifted and The Spine dropped down in front of them. Or, rather, The Spine’s –head- dropped down in front of them. The automaton had seperated from his body, leaving him as just a snake-like spine with a head. Steve fought very hard to keep a straight face. He had heard that The Spine could leave his body, but had never actually seen the bot do it. And for good reason, it was really damn creepy. 

“Oh, hello Captain Rogers, Mr. Stark.” The Spine smiled and let the wires move him towards where his body was stored, “If you would just give me a minute.”

The floor opened up to reveal the rest of The Spine’s body, the pieces held by metal arms not unlike the Iron Man armor assembly cradle. The automaton’s body snapped together quickly and efficiently, then more arms emerged holding The Spine’s usual outfit aloft. As a final touch, his fedora with its attached black wig lowered onto his bare head. 

“Much better,” The Spine adjusted his hat slightly and dusted off his vest, “So what has you visiting us at the Manor?”

“Well, today’s when you guys celebrate your birthday, right?” Steve hoped he’d gotten the date right, at least.

“Awww, ya remembered,” Rabbit smiled, “We weren’t expectin’ ya to come or anything. We don’t even celebrate it a lot of th-th-th-the time, but Mike n’ Sam n’ Steve insisted this year.”

“They’re out buying cake,” The Spine commented, leading them out of the Hall of Wires and back towards the stairs, “And ice cream. I believe The Jon went with them to help pick.”

“Wait, do you guys eat?” Tony was attempting to imagine how the automatons could process food. 

“We can. We don’t need to, but we can consume food.”

“Michael sometimes has ta clean us out afterwards, though,” Rabbit made a face at the memories. He wasn’t going to try bubblegum again any time soon. That had truly been an unpleasant experience. 

They were almost to the stairs when a plaintive meow echoed down the hallway, making the automatons stop. 

“Marshmallow!” Rabbit grinned, “Guh-guess Petes must be outta the lab. Come on, Steve. Ya gotta meet Peter VI.”

Down at the end of the hallway, there was a massive white shape coming closer and closer. It was a cat. An utterly enormous cat. Even The Spine barely came up to its elbows. And riding on its back, sitting on a saddle like it was the most normal thing in the world, was a man with a wooden mask covering his face. 

“Heya, Petes,” Rabbit reached up to give the cat a friendly scritch under the chin, “Look, C-Cap came ta see us.”

“So I see,” Peter Walter the Sixth leaned down and held out a hand, “It’s good to meet you, Captain Rogers. You too Mr. Stark. I would love to talk engineering and robotics later.” Peter straightened in his saddle and turned his attention to his robotic ‘uncles,’ “Boys, I’ve just finished up with HatchWorth. I’m going to turn him back on after I get some lunch.”

A look of shocked delight came over the both robot’s faceplates. HatchWorth. . . that was the name of one of their brothers, wasn’t it? Steve remembered hearing Rabbit tell tales about his family, but had never had a chance to meet the other robots that hadn’t come to the war. 

Rabbit managed to recover his ability to speak first, “H-Hatchy? Ya fixed him? Ya really muh-mean it? An’ just in time for our party! Cap, y-y-y-you’ll get ta meet Hatchy!”

“That’s great,” Steve couldn’t help but grin at how excited the automaton seemed, “I look forward to it.” 

“Meet me down in lab 10 in a few minutes. I’m off to get a sandwich,” And with that, Peter and Marshmallow plodded off in the direction of the kitchens. 

Lab 10 turned out to be down in the bowels of the mansion, and it took them several minutes just to get down there from the upper floors. Steve had the idle thought that Walter Manor seemed to be much larger on the inside than it was on the outside. 

They were met outside the lab by an older man who didn’t appear to have any eyes, just a smooth expanse of skin where his eyes should have been. He introduced himself as Peter Walter the Fifth, which made Tony wonder if every member of the Walter family was crazy as hell or if the last two generations were just special. 

Inside the lab, a robot lay prone on the work table. He was shorter and more stout than the other bots, and a hatch resembling an oven door was laid into his chest. The bronze body shone in the lab’s work lights, resembling Rabbit’s intricate bodywork more than The Spine’s smooth systems. Only the steam drifting lazily from the vents in his cheeks and the small stove pipe on his head showed that HatchWorth was just powered down and not offline. 

“Alright, if everyone could stand back please,” Both Peters approached the work table and prepared to turn HatchWorth back on. Together, they reached around for the switch on the robot’s back that would bring him online. 

Clockwork gears ticked loudly as HatchWorth’s systems powered on, blue matter core whirling audibly. Bright blue optics slowly opened, blinking a few times in the bright lights, “Wh-what? Where?”

Peter the Fifth pulled out a pair of eyeglasses and settled them on HatchWorth’s face, “Hello, HatchWorth, welcome back.”

Rabbit couldn’t contain himself any longer and ran forward to embrace his brother, helping tug the disoriented automaton into a sitting position, “Hatchy! You’re back, Petes fixed ya.”

“Rabbit?” HatchWorth’s voice was flat without any emotional inflection as he struggled for a moment to match up the green, oxidized faceplates with the smooth copper ones he had known before, “The Spine? What happened? How long have I been gone?”

“A long time, pal. A long time,” The Spine smiled and placed a hand on his youngest brother’s shoulder, “But Peter five and six figured out what was wrong with your core, and you’re back with us now.”

“Five and Six?” HatchWorth gaped. He really had been out for a long time. 

“Yep! Bu-but now you’re jus’ in time fer cake and ice cream,” Rabbit was overjoyed at having his brother back, “Come on, let’s get ya dressed an’ introduce y-y-you to everyone.”

“Diagnostics first, then he can get dressed and have some ice cream,” Peter Six said firmly, dashing Rabbit’s plans, “I’ll send him out in a couple minutes.”

The Spine, Steve, and Tony waited outside the lab as Rabbit ran around the mansion to gather an outfit worthy of his brother. After all, they had to match for the party and HatchWorth had to look good when he was introduced to all the humans. 

“So what happened to him?” Steve asked curiously as they listened to the Peters running through the diagnostics of HatchWorth’s systems. 

“HatchWorth has a portal inside him similar to The Jon’s void,” The Spine explained, voice quiet, “It caused a leak in his blue matter core, and we had to shut him down and put him inside a lead vault to prevent the blue matter leak from spreading.”

“A vault? How long was he in there?”

“We shut him down in 1938,” The Spine sounded unbearably guilty, “He’s been in there for over 70 years. But we couldn’t figure out how to fix his core.”

“Well I guess we have some things in common, then,” Steve said with a smile, not wanting to see his friend sad. 

“Are they done yet?” Rabbit came running up, arms full of clothing. 

“Almost!” Peter the Fifth responded from inside the lab, “Okay, you can come back in now, boys.”

Steve and Tony respectfully stayed outside the room while Rabbit and The Spine went in to get their brother dressed and prepared to meet everyone in the manor. 

“Don’t you worry, Hatchy. Everybody’s super nice,” Rabbit was saying as they stepped out of the lab into the hallway, “They’ll luh-love ya.”

Steve put on his friendliest face as he shook HatchWorth’s hand. The super solider could sympathize with what the bronze bot was going through, waking up having missed 70 years and having to deal with being surrounded by new faces. At least HatchWorth had his brothers there. 

The group slowly made their way towards the kitchen, where the others who had been out grocery shopping were just returning with their spoils. Upon seeing HatchWorth, The Jon dropped everything he was holding and ran to embrace his younger brother in the biggest hug he could manage; babbling excitedly about how great it was to have him back and how they had gotten all of the –best- ice cream flavors and how HatchWorth would have to try them all. 

Once The Jon had been pried off of HatchWorth, the human band members introduced themselves to the new bot and everyone gathered around the table to celebrate. The cake was cut up and served by two very nice young ladies in white dresses with black and blue hair, who were apparently Walter Girls and from somewhere in Kazoo Land. Tony seemed very interested in the subject of the other world but Steve hastily changed the subject. They really didn’t need to get Avengers Tower sucked into another dimension. Again. 

After the cake was finished off the ice cream came out. The Jon had picked the oddest flavors the store offered, though fortunately one of the humans had the forethought to grab some simple vanilla and chocolate. The joyous cry of ‘ICE CREAM PARADE” echoed through the manor as everyone filled up a waffle cone with their flavors of choice. 

An Ice Cream Parade apparently involved everyone skipped and singing through the manor while attempting to eat ice cream at the same time. Steve was content to sit and watch, but then he saw that even The Spine, normally the most stoic of the bots, was skipping with a broad smile on his titanium face the super soldier couldn’t help but get to his feet and join in. 

“You know, I never saw you for the type to sing about ice cream while running through the house,” Steve commented afterwards. 

The Spine just smiled and shook his head, “It’s not really about the ice cream. But it feels nice just to have fun with your family and friends. I never want to miss out on a chance for that.”


	11. Bowler

Kinda short. Kinda dumb. But I was using a steamer to shape some squashed fedoras earlier, and had to write it. 

 

\- - - - - -- 

It was a long, dirty fight. The rain was falling so hard a man could barely see a foot in front of him, and the mud sucked at their shins. Though they won the battle, the Commando’s didn’t feel particularly elated as they marched back to the road where their transport waited. Each man was soaked through to the bone, raincoats and hats doing nothing against the driving rain. There weren’t even any cracks about Rabbit rusting, as usually happened when it rained.

When they were finally back at camp and out of the weather, the men peeled off their wet uniforms with no thought to modesty. It was too miserable to care. There, in the tent, they discovered the only casualty of the fight. 

Dum Dum Dugan gave a cry as he held his beloved bowler hat in his hands. It barely even resembled a hat anymore, so caked with mud and misshapen it was. The brim was limp and warped and the top sunken in and shapeless. Dum Dum tried to put it on his head, only to have it melt down over his eyes. 

Everyone held a moment of silence for the hat as Dum Dum held it outside a moment to wash off the mud, leaving it a clean but sodden lump. 

“It was th’ only thing I had from home,” And if they saw a tear in Dum Dum’s eye, they’d be sure to deny it later. 

Finally, Rabbit could take the moping no longer and stepped forward, holding out his hand, “Give it here.”

“I ain’t gonna let you burn my hat,” Dum Dum held his bowler close to his chest, sure that the automaton was intending to cremate it. 

“I’m nuh-not gonna burn it.” Rabbit snatched the hat with his long, spindly fingers and held it out of Dum Dum’s reach, a loud ticking filling the tent as his systems heated up beyond normal operating temperature. 

Resigned to the fact that he wasn’t strong nor agile enough to retrieve his hat from the robot, Dum Dum crossed his arms and watched with narrow eyes. 

 

After a few moments, Rabbit held the hat up to his mouth and exhaled a thick, hot plume of steam. As he blew, his sharp fingers turned and shaped the hat, unafraid of being burned by the scalding steam. Slowly, the wool hat regained its shape under Rabbit’s careful touch. 

When Rabbit’s mouth shut with a click, the bowler in his hands looked to be good as new, if a little damp. Dum Dum was speechless as his hat was returned to his head, Rabbit wandering off to locate his water bottle and top off his boiler.


End file.
